FASHION Magazine

Kanye West paramour Amber Rose is not known for dressing conservatively and indeed, her parade of Men’s/Couture Week outfits have been designed to very specifically not blend in. There was the head-to-toe fur at Louis Vuitton’s men’s show, a furry LV muff at the Dior Homme show that inspired many a “muff diving” reference, and […]

The post Amber Rose dresses like a speed-skating statuette at Chanel Haute Couture. Do you like her outfit? appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Ever wondered why haute couture is so expensive? We mean, it’s obviously expensive, but there are at least a few good reasons for the price tag. Couture uses the best fabrics (period) and everything–everything–is created by hand. Behold, some numbers from today’s Chanel Haute Couture show that reveal just how much goes into creating these garments.

3: The number of hours it takes to create one metre of the collection’s hand-sewn “hidden seams.” Some garments took 35 hours for the seams alone.

1,300: The number of hours it took to create the wedding dress and cape worn by Abbey Lee

Does anything prove the dominance of shorts this spring than their appearance on the runway at Couture Week? At the Chanel show this morning short suits made their way down the runway in shimmering dark grey, cream, lemon yellow, pastel pink, and light blue.

Clever, clever, Fédération Francaise de la Couture. It’s now going to be so much easier to shop for jewels when you’re already going to be in Paris for Haute Couture week!

Photographer Gabor Jurina–one of FASHION’s BFFs–went to yesterday’s Chanel couture show and sent us this report. Check out his work at gaborjurina.com (or in the Summer issue of FASHION) and his blog at gaborgeous.com.

Last evening’s Fall 2009 couture presentation from Chanel was the perfect combination of French luxury with German precision. Kaiser Karl pulled it off yet again, to the pleasure of his devotees. There was a sea of Chanel bags, in every shape, colour and fabric. It was a virtual retrospective of past Chanel collections in the audience. The genius of Chanel is that even though we shoot it for our pages of FASHION Magazine on lithe young women, it works beautifully on ladies of any age.

The Wall Street Journal‘s Ray Smith looks…amused as he talks to la crème de Williamsburg boys about their skinny jeans. [WSJ]

Could this be Christian Lacroix’s last couture show? Better look now, before it’s gone. [The Cut]

Anna Wintour appears to be giving couture week a miss–she was absent from yesterday’s Dior showing. [Fashion Week Daily]

Repetto’s Jackson jazz shoe is dancing off shelves of their Paris store. A touch less obvious than a single-white-glove style tribute. [Style File]

All of my big plans to head to Montreal to check out the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts may be a bust, but I got an email last week that promised to satisfy the couture craving. This past Friday, I ventured up to Holt Renfrew on Bloor Street (my second home of late, not that I’m complaining) to take a spin around a new in-store installation of vintage YSL.

After a long and dull winter, Montreal is full of life again. Last week the Festival Transamériques (www.fta.qc.ca) drew dance and theatre lovers to its indoor and outdoor shows, exhibitions and workshops. With artists in from Paris, Dusseldorf, Brussels, New York, Rio and Berlin, the atmosphere was really thrilling. Among the favourites was Benoît Lachambre and Louise Lecavalier’s Is You Me, a dark, minimalist dance show that questioned the body and its relationship to others. With N.Y.C. composer Hahn Rowe’s magnetic electronic music and artist Laurent Goldring’s live digital creations, it was a voyage for all the senses.